Jane Goldman bemused by Kick-Ass reaction

A non-stop action film starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie & Morgan Freeman. Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) is a mild-mannered Chicago office worker until he meets Fox (Jolie), who reveals to him that he's a member of an ancient secret organization called the Fraternity, which kills bad people. Upon learning from Fox that his estranged father has been murdered, Wesley completes training and becomes an avenging assassin.

The screenwriter claims the movie - which featured Chloe Moretz as a foul-mouthed 11-year-old assassin - was designed to be humorous and entertaining, and says she was surprised by the outcry that followed the film's release.

She said: "We didn't set out to shock, we just wanted to tell a good story.

"I was a little bit amazed that the Americans were more offended by the C-word than by the fact Hit-Girl was cutting people's legs off."

Jane has recently re-teamed with director Matthew Vaughn to work on 'X-Men: First Class' and she admits she felt pressure to do well on the movie because the original comic books have such a huge fan base.

She said: "As a comic fan, I feel a constant sense of responsibility and slight panic every time someone goes, 'Can we just make it slightly different?' "

However, she felt much more relaxed making 'Kick-Ass' because there were no major studios to answer to.

She said: "Because it was a completely independent production, it was like having no grown-ups around telling you what to do. That was particularly fun."